Shut up and wave the flag

Two peace activists were denied
entry to Parliamentary grounds todayduring the
Government’s Vietnam War event. This in the day after
theWellington High Court upheld the convictions against
Valerie Morse andanother activist for burning the flag
and disrupting the speech of theSecretary of Defence on
ANZAC day in 2007.

The first person denied entry to
Parliament grounds is a Quaker peaceactivist who worked
in Vietnam for 2 years during the war as a civilian.He
had officially registered to participate in the
government’s ceremoniesat a cost of $95. He marched at
the back of the parade with a wreathdedicated to the
“Vietnamese civilians killed in the war.” When
heapproached the Parliamentary grounds, he was told that
he was not allowedto enter.

The other person
approached the Parliamentary gates after attending
asmall silent vigil on Lambton Quay. Carrying a sign
that said, “HelenClark, Phil Goff: 1974: Anti-war
activists; 2008: military recruiters,”the woman was
blockaded from entering the gates and told she would
beissued with a trespass notice. When she replied that
it was a public space and asked why she was not allowed
to enter, she was told only that“she was not
allowed.” A filmmaker on the public footpath outside of
thegates of Parliament was also warned. The woman was
then formally turnedaway from Parliament grounds.

The
actions of Parliamentary security are hardly surprising.
Thegovernment will spare no effort in extinguishing
dissent on the left, nomatter how small or ‘legal.’
In the run up to the election, Labour isdetermined to
illustrate that ‘there is no alternative’ to its
re-electionby continuing to carefully brand itself
‘left’ while occupying a spaceever further to the
political right.

More to the point, however, is that these
tactics are not unique to aparticular political party.
They are part and parcel of the maintenance ofstate
control through violence and a manufactured national
identityconstructed through war mythology.

The ANZAC
day ruling demonstrates the intolerance of the state for
anyactual challenge to its hegemonic discourse. The High
Court Justice Millerupheld the convictions in the
flag-burning case saying that the protest‘went to
far.’ Justice Miller’s opinion that handing out leaflets
andgiving away free food was fine, but actually
challenging anyone’s ideas,particularly the
government’s was offensive behaviour. In fact,
hesuggested that some might consider it an act of
‘desecration’ so high wasthe symbolic value of the
act of burning the flag.

By his ruling, he declared that
ANZAC day is too sacred for criticism.Noting that the
day is bathed in the “aura of dignity and respect,”
theHigh Court Justice effectively removed it from the
realm of any debate.ANZAC day is precisely what the
Government says it is: a day ofcommemoration; just as
today’s Vietnam ceremony was a “commemoration,”
aplace inappropriate for political debate.

The placing
of military ceremony into the realm of the sacred is a
clevertactic indeed. No longer can anyone be blamed for
what actually happens;it is enough to say it happened,
it was horrible; let us remember thosepoor soldiers who
had to endure it. But under no circumstances should
wedraw any comparisons to Afghanistan today or
illustrate any hypocrisy,like the failure of the
government to acknowledge the thousands ofordinary
people exposed to the same chemicals in Agent Orange,
complimentsof the Ivor Watkins Dow Chemical plant in New
Plymouth.

No no, we can no longer think, we must simply
shut up and raise the
flag.

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